Our New Beginnings Come Unto Christ: Diamonds in the Rough 2014

We had our ward New Beginning's last night. We did the (typical, I'm noticing) theme of "Diamonds in the Rough" that I'm seeing everywhere.  I don't feel bad doing the same as a lot of other places, because the girls like glitzy glam stuff and its fancy, and it goes SO well with the youth theme this year of "Come unto Christ and be perfected in Him."  I love the idea of our hidden potential to become perfect beautiful diamonds if we come unto Christ, allow the trials and pressures of life work on us, and become shaped into something beautiful.

We invited all the parents, family members, and bishopric to come enjoy in this evening.  Of course we had fancy invitations that we handed out a few weeks prior and mailed to those we didn't catch at church.

Fancy schmancy! 

Then we set out to decorate the black and white and light pink the girls requested. We are so blessed to have wonderful sisters in our ward who have collected decorations over the years from weddings, and proms and whatever events and we got to pick and choose from their stash. So lucky ! And we came up with the following:

The program table. (Iron needed, I know!) Got the Theme print out here.

Absolutely loved the idea of the girls pictures surrounding Christ. They were excited to see their pictures and take them home.  This was probably my favorite part. 

The table post closing prayer. Excuse the mess :]

Oh and admire my awesome cupcakes I made. Um.. yummy? First time with fancy frosting and I love it!

The program was very simple. We didn't want a long program, hours into an already long Sunday. We had a talk by our YW President, introducing the theme for the night, Diamonds in the Rough, and talked about the diamond process and how we can relate this to Coming unto Christ.  We also had a talk by the YW Secretary who's over the Personal Progress and her talk was on... Personal Progress! And how we can Come unto Christ through Personal Progress. Which you can get more info here.

From here we turned the time over to the YW and they presented Jenny Phillips program "Come Unto Christ" which can be found on her website.  We just swapped out her music for ours, for time constraints of learning the songs and we have instrument talent we wanted to show case.

But we did have the girls learn and sing the theme song, Come Unto Christ (so good!) and an arrangement of I'm Trying to be like Jesus with a beautiful vilolin part, and a few more Christ related songs. 

After that we presented a homemade "Mormon Message" by yours truely (that I wanted to make for my faith project). We previously recorded the girls answering the questions: What does it mean to Come unto Christ, how do you plan to come unto Christ and how has/does Personal Progress help you come unto Christ? I then did some snazzy editing in iMovie (woo!) and smashed it all together and go this! 

You can also go to the YouTube link here!

All credit goes to the artists for their pictures & the song is the minus track of Come unto Christ.

It was so incredible to make this video. Being able to sit in on their testimonies and here their answers was amazing. I had to be very aware, because I'd get teary eyed but couldn't cry since sniffles wouldn't be easy to edit out of the video! 

We also made them tiles with cut vinyl (shout out to my awesome cricut!) and had each one for the girls. 

Simple. Nothing fancy. We just wanted something for the girls to take home. Tied to the back is a copy of the video I made in a little sleeve so they can keep it forever and watch it everyday, right girls?

All in all, it was a very stressful event. We had SO many mishaps along the way. Nothing big, but just one thing after the other. The poor YW president and I were so ready to rip our hair out. But by the end we knew it was just Satan trying to frustrate the whole evening and stop us from having this event. Which we knew the Lord wanted so we persevered and survived ! And loved it. So many stories and memories. 

Here's one for the road ;]

Oh that happened. ::shivers::

It was a wonderful night. With wonderful girls and the wonderful spirit. I loved seeing the girls showcase their talents and testimony. And hearing the rave reviews of the night from so many. I love being back in this calling !

Our beautiful girls !

To food, or not to food?

I had this thought a few weeks ago. I've been trying to figure out how to say this.

In the past few years, decade, whatever, people have become more health conscious.  All natural, organic, free range, grain fed, no genetically modified, pesticide blahblahblah. There's movements, movies, groups, songs [maybe not] all about the horrible things in our food and the horrible things you are then putting into your bodies.

While I'm not saying we shouldn't be worried, or wary, or conscious about the GM foods, high fructose corn syrup and whatever else people are up in arms about, I thought of some other things we take into our bodies, that aren't as good.. But we aren't picketing these things.

So here's my picket sign.

Maybe because I'm getting old. Maybe because I have "mature" [haha] taste.

Do you stop and think about the music you listen to? What about the movies? What's the language like, the scenes? What about those friends you choose to be around? I'm not talking about the school hall talk; obviously you can't control that and you need to be in school or work. But when you choose to be around those people.

The standards for members of the church have been set forth in the "For the Strength of Youth" pamphlet, which surprisingly isn't just for youth.  In the entertainment & media section, the First Presidency has stated, "Do not attend, view, or participate in anything that is vulgar, immoral, violent, or pornographic in any way. Do not participate in anything that presents immorality or violence as acceptable. Have the courage to walk out of a movie, change your music, or turn off a computer, television, or mobile device if what you see or hear drives away the Spirit." 

Pretty straight forward?

There is more information in other sections, language, music & dancing, friends, etc. We've been directed by modern Prophets on what things to allow "into our bodies" and what things to stay away from. 

So where are the news crews headlining this? Where are the documentaries, the protesters demanding awareness for these spiritually detrimental things we allow in our bodies, our families, our children? 

Food for thought. 

[pun intended]   

Quickly

I probably shouldn't update when I'm feeling frustrated. I'm afraid you'll sense the angst in my writing and it won't be fun. Well, I hope my normal writing is fun.

I just thought I'd put a quick update on here. Nothing big going on.

Logan is officially a crawler. Almost a week now. He just decided one day that he wanted to crawl. And then he did. No learning. No awkward attempts. Just mastered it. Bam. 24 hours and he's a crawler. He's so fast. He loves getting into the dogs water bowl. Great. But he loves his baths, so I'm not surprised he loves to splash in the bowl. He's stood twice in the last few days without holding on and just stood. No biggie. It was pretty intense except he didn't realize it. He just plops down. He loves when we try to get him to stand and he falls one way or the other. He giggles and laughs. Its amusing. Did I put he got his first full hair cut? It was a few weeks ago. Chris did it while I was a church one day. I came home and it was gone. He did ask permission. But I didn't realize he was actually going to do it. Logan grew like 2 years in a matter of 2 hours. It was sad.  But he's so cute.

Long shaggy before hair

it's all gone ! He looks so much bigger. Crazy !

 He's 9 months. Had his check up. Not quite 20lbs which kills me, cause I would have sworn he was. He's taller than he is wide. So that explains why all his shirts come up over his belly. That fat little belly. Which is why i love him in footie pjs. I don't have to worry about the bottom of clothes coming halfway up his leg, or his shirts riding up over his belly. And had his second flu shot. So sad. Poor kid. Not excited for his 1yr check up when he gets stuck with all kinds of stuff. His sad little face. I can't take it. But that's all thats new with him. He's not walking quite yet. He loves walking along the furniture. He discovered his walker toy he can walk behind, since he's only ever climbed up on in and played with the activity front part of it. Now he likes to get it and walk all over the living room. He walks crooked. Like he's drunk. Silly kid. He doesn't like food. Well, real food. He eats all his jarred food and then some. But give him the real version of what his mashed food is, he hates it. Spits it out, makes the grossest face. I hope this kid isn't on jars forever.

Chris applied for graduation last week. Since the deadline was Friday. Nice. I am excited about that. He's on schedule. Should be fine as long as he passes all class. He said he's pretty sure he can get all D's this semester and still graduate with an air force acceptable GPA. Woot. He talked to a recruiter for the Air National Guard in Charleston. They have a pilots position open there. Chris wants it. So he got all the info, just needs to start working on that. Ie, studying for the tests, physicals, reference letters, etc. We may be west virginia-ers a few years longer. Who knows.

Chris got me a Nexus 7 tablet for my early Valentines present. I'm excited to use it. I don't really know what to use it for. Most anything I can do on it I've been using my phone for, so it seems redundant so far. Except when I have to teach church, then it will be wonderful, since the new curriculum is online and printing it all is a pain and just having it there on this cute little tablet will be lovely.

Life has been pretty hectic. I'm kind of at my end. Physically, emotionally, spiritually. I'm just tapped out. I'm not tired, in that I'm not sleeping. But just so much. All the time. I can't. I mean I can. But it feels like I can't. There's just always something. And I'm not handling it well. I know it will be over soon. I know I should be positive and have that optimistic outlook and blah blah blah. And I will. But not right now. Let me be cranky, and moody and eat chocolate every night. I keep thinking this is a challenge for me. I've been just going through the motions lately. Not really into what ever it is I'm doing. And a few times, I've been thinking about how to challenge the Young Women to follow the theme for this year "Come Unto Christ" and then I think about what I am or can be doing to do that as well. And maybe that's what this is. Unfortunately, it's not until we're tired, lost, broken, forsaken, alone that we turn to our Savior. And maybe I am not being a good example to the YW and this is going to push me to be.

At least thats what I'm going to tell myself while I'm dealing with stuff.

Progress

Progress: noun

ˈprägrəs,ˈprägˌres,ˈprōˌgres/

1. 1.

   forward or onward movement toward a destination.

I've been thinking a lot about progress lately. Maybe because I'm watching my sweet little boy master crawling, or pulling himself up preparing to walk off across the room at any moment. Maybe because Chris is a few short months away from graduation and we get to move forward with the next step. Maybe because of some things I'm dealing with in my life as a YW leader. That's probably it. Because this will focus more on the Gospel's (well my version of the Gospel's) view of progress.

Members of the LDS church talk a lot about the Plan of Salvation. If you want more information that I may not cover proceed here ---> http://www.lds.org/topics/plan-of-salvation?lang=eng. I found a fancy color picture depicting said Plan for this purpose.

There's a lot of information there. Bear with me. 

This is huge for members of the church. This is THE plan. Where we came from, where we are, where we are going. It's the purpose, gives you direction. Gives you that destination we're progressing towards. I love having this knowledge. I don't have to wonder. 

[Hopefully] quick break down. We lived in the Premortal existence with our Heavenly Father and Christ and all God's spirit children. There two plans were proposed, Lucifers plan, which lacked agency, basically forcing us all to making right choices and return to Heaven and Christ's plan which allowed us to use our agency and potentially return to live with Our Father again, or not. Based purely on our choices in life. These opposing plans started "the war in Heaven" between Lucifer's followers and those who supported Christ. 1/3 of all the spirits in Heaven sided with Lucifer and God ultimately cast them out of Heaven. Those who remained and followed Christ, left the Premortal Existence and came to Earth. We have forgotten all this because of the Veil (seen) so we can be objective and make our decisions in this life, whether to follow Christ's example, make right choices, follow the scriptures, commandments, prophets etc. This is where we are (duh right?).  When we leave this world, through death, our body will be buried, and our spirit will continue on to one of two places: spirit paradise or spirit prison. Placement is based solely on your decisions here in this life. If you've kept the commandments and follow Christ and his prophets you will enjoy paradise. If you need to work on some things, repent, iron our your kinks in obedience, you will go to Spirit Prison where you will have the opportunity to be taught and fix what needs fixin'. This is currently happening for all those who have died since the beginning of the world. And will continue to happen until... the Resurrection. Christ rose on the 3rd day. Agreed? We are to follow his example and because he broke the bonds of death by being resurrected, we too will be resurrected. This will be the rejoining of our body and spirit so we can stand before God and be judged according to our works in Earth life. From here the judgement takes place of all spirits/people who lived on the earth. Here is where things get a little awesome (imho) instead of just a pass/fail system, there isn't just Heaven or Hell, good or bad.  There are three kingdoms of Heaven. Celestial is the best, most sought after. Where we will live in the presence of God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. It's compared to the glory of the sun. Brightest, most glorious. The second kingdom is the Terrestrial, compared to the glory of the moon. Still bright. Still beautiful, but not quite as magnificent as the sun. And the last is the Telestial Kingdom, which is comparable to the glory of the stars. And for those that are absolutely horrible, and basically evil followers of Satan/Lucifer, get to go to outer darkness. No light. (See 1 Cor. 15:40-41).  

Ok. Overwelmed? Sorry. I had to make sure we were all on the same page. 

So back to my progress. So you see how going through this plan is sort of linear. You start from one and go to the next and continue on. Until you reach the destination. The definition, remember, of progress says the forward or onward movement towards a destination. Not backwards. Not sitting still. Forward. Go. Move. 

There is no progress in standing still. 

Would it make sense in the grand scheme of this Plan, to say, stop after you come to earth? Refuse to leave? Stay in earth life... forever? No. What's the point? We came here to experience, use our agency, make choices and prove ourselves worthy to return to live with our Father in Heaven. Or even after death. Let's stay dead... What? Why? What was the purpose of any of that? At any point (beyond making it past judgement and into one of the kingdoms) there is no reason to stop. There is no reason to stand still. We must progress. We must push forward toward our destination. No matter how scary that next step is. I'm sure leaving the comfort and glory of our Father in Heaven to come to this dreary world called Earth was intimidating, fearful, you name it. I'm sure we felt scared. But we trusted God. We trusted our Savior. We had faith. We took the leap and came here. Now people talk about fear of death. Fear of what's next. Why yes, we fear the unknown. But if we exercise a little faith, and see what's next, see what's coming, would we delay it? Would we want to live forever, just because we're scared of the next step? No. It seems silly. Childish, to throw a tantrum because we're scared and refuse to move. We must go forward. This is the plan we agreed to before we came to this life. And knowing what comes next and what we can obtain, the goal we are moving towards, that wonderful destination... why fear? "This is a time for faith, not fear" (reference). 

So (how could I keep going!) to relate this to life. My life. My things. Working with Young Women (girls ages 12-18) in such a scary transient time in life, there is a lot of fear. You're dealing with so much uncertainty at that time in life. But... you still move forward. What would you tell the little 11 year old who's preparing to leave the children's primary program and enter the Young Women's program, who's afraid. Who doesn't want to leave the comfort of the familiar Primary program. How silly it seems. Ask anyone, Young Women's rocks. But they don't know that. They don't know what goes on there. They know what happens in Primary. And they want to stay. Sadly, they don't get to stay. You must progress. You must move forward. And before you know it that scared preteen is loving Young Women's, loving the new friends, the teachings, the activities and wonders why she ever fought against this natural progression. 

So what I'm trying to say, move. Forward. Not backwards. Move. Don't stand still. Have faith not fear. This whole entire Plan is based on the next step. Planning, preparing and moving forward. 

Frozen: Not the Disney Movie

It has been snowing. And snowing. Which I LOVE. Don't get me wrong. Snow means money. Snow means Chris gets to work. And that is awesome. Since he doesn't have a "real" job so he can plow. So this past week or so he's been home on and off. He'd have been gone more if school wasn't getting in the way. Curse you college ! But this has been nice. He's exhausted. Poor him. I'm mostly exhausted from taking care of Logan and being stuck in the house.  Logan's getting stir crazy. He can't stay in one room. He moves so much the front of his onesie gets covered in dog hair (yuck) and all dingy. I'm going to have to start mopping 3x a day. Awesome.

Speaking of college, and Chris. He gets to apply for graduation ! Woo ! I almost forgot about it. Until I saw the calendar event that says dead line to apply. So, this is happening ! He's got a couple scary classes that are definitely going to be tough. But he can do it. So I'm excited. Before I know it, it will be May and my baby boy will be one and I'll have a graduated husband ! Whatttt !

I can't really think of too much going on. Same old. Snow days. Work. It's been pretty laid back. We probably need to get warmed up to working. But this cold makes us all want to go home. All the time. Which is what we do. Yay for my awesome job :]

I've started doing a new work out challenge. I'm almost done with week 3. Which is probably the longest I've ever kept up with any workout/diet routine. Go me. Luckily I have a few friends doing it, and its all on facebook, AND I convinced my dear sweet husband to start it too. He's just a week behind, but hey. He's doing it too :] which is funny because it's called the Bikini Body Mommy Challenge.  90 days. We can do it ! Hopefully we see results. I can't say I have yet (granted its been 3 weeks, and I'm not dieting) but they workouts aren't killing me as much as they used to. So yay for being stronger !

And that's all I can think of. Life has been too busy but not with anything interesting. I've got a girls night party thing with Patti @ her house tonight, which I'm pretty excited about. I was up all night making sugar cookies & learning to decorate with royal icing. I gave myself a sugar hangover. Man, did I feel horrible this morning. And then my dad's big 5-0 birthday is Saturday and they're coming over for dinner :] I'm excited to have people over. And especially for them to be at my house and see Logan in his natural state. Which means cleaning. Lots of cleaning. Which I feel like I spent all last weekend doing. Which I did. Because my mess of a basement is absolutely gorgeous and clean now. I want to just sit down there. Because it's so pretty. Organization ::sigh::

Annnnd that's all folks. This snowy week went by fast. And hopefully I'll more interesting things to write about. I can make up stuff. Well not make up stuff, but just write random things but I don't think anyone cares.

I restarted doing this for my Project Life album. I'm still trying to work on the rest of my "Project 26" from 2013. I'm only a few weeks behind. I have them all planned, I just have to match them to a layout and print pictures. And I want to do this year, but the longer I wait, the longer I get behind and ahhhh. Maybe next week life will let up a bit and I can try to do more. I love being able to go back through and look at the fun things. Chris actually said "I'm so glad you've taken the time to make this" the other day when we were looking through what I've done so far. It's nice that he doesn't see it as a waste of time or money. And hopefully we like to keep looking at it through the years. And it's a ton easier to do now that the products are available at Michaels and HobLob now too :] Woo !! Check it out if you have no idea what I'm talking about: http://beckyhiggins.com/   scrapbooking made easy !

And now, that's really all I have.

The end !

Because sleep is overrated...

For whatever reason its 1am and my baby is asleep, husband is out working and i'm... updating my blog. Because... see title.

I realize it's been way too long since I've updated and I know I won't do it any other time. Mostly because I haven't been at work which means I've been busy at home. I've LOVED this wonderful 2 1/2 week long break <3 I never want it to end. Sadly... In 4 days it will :[  We really haven't done much which is fine by me. It's been lazy, and being home, and being together as a family. What more could a girl want?

We had a wonderful thanksgiving (I have even updated since then?!) in NJ and I saw a bunch of wonderful people I haven't seen in years, some in lots of years. It was really great to just be, hang out, catch up. Just talk. See how far we've all come. It's wonderful to keep in touch with people. I never had that, growing up and moving so much. It's nice to have people I have kept in touch with. So yummy turkey. Lots of people. LOTS of people. Lots of dogs. All under one roof. Wawa. Yum.

Christmas was busy. As usual. We had a last minute Perry Party, since no one really planned anything at the Thanksgiving thing we usually do. But it turned out really well. Perry's are always down for some perry time and food. It's nice to see everyone for a bit too. Chris has two cousins expecting, one's 1/2 way thru her pregnancy, so it was fun to talk to her. And the other wasn't there but they'd just announced it earlier that week. It's so fun. So many babies ! I know there are other couples (not us, so calm down spaz) that are trying so there are more on the way ! I can't wait til we have more, but.. I can. I get all anxious and have a mild attack when I think of another one. Except I miss being pregnant. But I love just having Logan, and paying attention to him. I can't make up my mind.

On to Logan. This kid is getting huge. Make it stop!  He has 7 teeth that have broken thru, we're waiting on the last one to complete the bottom "set" so his 4 top, and 3 and almost 4th on the bottom. They make him look so grown up ! I finally trimmed his hair because it was all in his eyes and growing over his collar and making it look all mullet-ish. ::gag:: I couldn't take it. He's 8 months old today. Weird. 4 months til his bday ! I've been planning it cause I'm a weirdo planner, but I might start getting stuff together, crafting the crafty parts and getting stuff going on. It's going to be a fun time in May. Hear this weekend.  So my mom's coming out for Josh's graduation (weird, my little brother.. baby brother, is graduating!) and thats the 12th, so whatever that thursday before is, she flies, then she'll drive here Friday. I'm going to wait a week to do Logan's 1st Bday since her and my grandma will be here, and really? It's not like he'll notice. So party Friday, Saturday is Chris' graduation ! Ah ! Yay ! Luckily we'll have a joint party w/ his little sister later in the month. And then sunday is normal busy Sunday, and then Monday is Josh's graduation. AH. So. Much. To. Do. But yeah. So my baby is big. He's not actually crawling yet. He's so much better at getting up on his hands and knees all by himself. But he scoots like a champ. He moves so much it's crazy. He loves all his new toys he got for Christmas. So many noisy, sound, singing things. But he always loves wires, wrapping paper tube, remotes and shoes. Because... we didn't buy any of those things for him. So why not?  He loves pulling himself up on you, the couch, legs, whatever he can stick his little talon like fingers in to. So we had to lower his crib so he doesn't try to prison break outta that thing. He's getting so big. He loves to talk. Recently learned how to scream like a banshee. Not even when he's mad, but ALL the time. Gah, this kid kills me. I love him tho. He loves to eat. Everything. Still makes funny faces when you give him "real" food vs his pureed baby mush. Knows how to use his big boy sippy cup, even if he doesn't hold it himself yet. And... that's all I can think of. He's adorable. I love him to death. I can't imagine life without him. I have LOVED these last few weeks being able to be with him constantly. It's like maternity leave all over again but now he does stuff instead of just sleep and eat. I have the cutest kid ever.

And thats all I can think of for now. Loved talking to Maddie on Christmas Day. She's too cute. Sounds like a little sister missionary. I'm super excited for her to get home, especially since Chris is planning on leaving me for the summer to go work. I'll be lonely. Even tho Maddie's other half will be here, hopefully they'll let Logan and I tag along as a joint third wheel like we let Maddie do for our first year of marriage. And Mert is in Oregon awaiting to go to Brazil. Which is awesome. I still can't wrap my head around her being on a mission. I'm super jealous.  They're both having the best experiences and I love hearing about all the wonderful things they're doing. Can't wait til I'm old and I can go on one !!

Oh and I got called to Young Womens. Again. It's been a few weeks, so I'm beyond the shock of it all. I was so sad to be leaving the Relief Society and working with the wonderful women in the church. But I know callings are definitely inspired and I know even in these few short weeks, the women I'm working with are wonderful and we are going to do great. I have to stop reverting back to when i was in the presidency in NJ. It's different ! But it's so hard to not compare things, right? But it should be fun. Fun. fun. fun.

And.. thats all I can think of at this wonderful early 1am time. Yay for snow so husbands can go work. Yay for wonderful jobs that let you have vacations and spend precious time with family. Yay for this wonderful season that has come to a close, so we can remember our Savior and all He's done for us and how much He means in my life. And... here's to 2014. I don't really have... resolutions. Because I think I've only ever kept one in my whole life. But the obvious, I do want to get in better shape. I've been mentally psyching myself up for that one. And then work on some personal things with some character flaws I want to try to iron out. Hopefully we'll be expecting sometime in 2014 :] how fun ! Ah ! and scary. And we may not even be in WV this time next year. 2014 is going to be big changes for our little family and I can't wait !

Tutorial: Frayed Flannel Christmas Stocking

My first tutorial ! Ah ! I'm so excited. This is so much work. Thanks for everyone everywhere that has ever made a tutorial that I've used. You're wonderful !

So this is a stocking that I had the privilege of learning to make when I was living with a wonderful family from my church in my early 20's. They were wonderful. And I totally give her credit for this idea and have no idea where she got it from. So... no one sue me. But I loved mine and have since made one for my husband and then for my newest little addition. They're pretty simple to make, honestly, its just the time to make it. And then prefiguring out how to make them since I have made one every three years. That's a lot of forgetting time.

The wonderful thing about this stocking is it frays and looks so cute. And it hides my lack of skilled technique and they all look so different. So if you need a forgiving project... this is it. 

Please be patient with me if I don't explain clearly. Or by all means, leave me a (nice) comment and I'll edit directions, or add in more information. Whatever you need !

So first off supplies:

Flannel (4 different patterns/color)

       -I use one main pattern, white, and then 2 coordinating colors

       -The pattern I get 1 yard which is always MORE than enough. But I'm afraid its never enough. And I was making a bigger stocking then my last two. And then 1/2 yd for the colors. I had left overs of the red and white.

Thread

Sewing machine

Scissors

Pins

Christmas music (not necessary but totally fun)

So I used my husbands stocking from last year as my pattern. You can always use a brown paper bag and trace and reuse that every time you make one if you want uniformity. Where I was making my son's stocking bigger, I just used this to get the same-ish shape.

Take your pattern flannel. Mine was still folded in half, and lay the pattern and trace to cut. You'll need to cut two, which is why I left my flannel folded.

So I have my huge stocking cut out of my pattern moose flannel (so cute huh?). There are two. One for the back and one for the front.

Now to cut the color layers. I always have used white as the front's back layer, for contrast I guess against the different colors. One day I'd like to use the pattern, or a color. I'll experiment one day. 

I lay my fabric in the order I want them. I just want to cut once, make sure they're all even. Etc. So white on the bottom, red, then my bright green. (In retrospect, because my moose flannel has a bright green background I should have put the red on top to go between the two green layers.. oh well. Keep your colors in mind!) 

Then I used my moose flannel to trace onto my layered colored flannels and cut.  

All my layers cut. Beautiful. Even. Yay!

Next we're going to sew the top layers in preparation for the cutting and fraying. This is why its good to have your flannels already layered. My layers were top to bottom: moose, bright green, red, white. Moose (right side) facing up.

I pin them to hold them as much together as possible. Unfortunately as you sew the layers will shift slightly. And if the fabric bubbles, its ok ! Isn't that wonderful. You're going to chop it all up anyways. So pick a corner and start sewing at a diagonal.  Back stitch at the beginning and end. You're going to be tossing this in the washer to fray it and I hate to see all those beautifully straight-ish lines unravel. And just keep going all the way down and across the whole stocking through all layers. I did my lines about 1/2 - 3/4in apart. It varies. Again. This hides my flaw in technique and lack of OCD care. Just don't make them too close together because the scissors won't fit. 

 

And always sew a ridiculously short tiny line on the end and beginning. You're going to need to cut between these lines, and if I hadn't sewn that last little tiny stitch (seen all the way to the right in the above pic) then I'd have a 1 1/2in of non frayed fabric on my stocking. Sad. 

Here's the front of my completely sewn front of my stocking. All the pretty diagonals.

And my back, which is just my white. I'm showing you everything. I hate lack of pictures in tutorials. Sorry if I'm forgetting some. 

Now we start the cutting ! Take some good fabric scissors (I don't have any yet, lame) cause you'll be cutting thru three layers. Your hand gets tired. Cut between the lines, from end to end, BUT only through the top three layers of fabric. So my backing was white, I only cut thru the red, green and moose. Multiple pictures to make sense. Otherwise you'll be cutting little single separate strips of flannel... and that's useless. 

See? Don't cut that bottom layer. 

See again? Please don't. Ok. You're good?

Ok, here's my chopped up front of my stocking. In two lightings because my flash made it look gross, but no flash made it look gross. Yay for doing this at... midnight :]

Pushed the layers out of the way so you can see that bottom layer is fully in tact !

One last time for kicks, don't cut the bottom layer !

Now on to the top of the stocking ! Unfortunately I don't have measurements for these. I mostly just line up my big stocking piece and cut what looks proportional. I'm a horrible tutorial-ist. When you figure out what size you need lay out your white flannel and you'll need 10 pieces of white. So layer, layer, layer. Cut, cut, cut! You'll use 4 pieces to fray the front of the stocking, and then a piece to line the inside of the front piece. And then the same on the back. 4 more pieces to fray the back and lining. Obviously you don't have to fray the top back piece, since the bottom patterned piece in the back isn't frayed.. but this is how I made my first one. So it's how I do it. I also very much like the look of having just a flat patterned flannel piece for the stocking body and fraying the top white portion. Be creative ! 

Anyways. Back to prepping. 

So I have my 10 identical pieces cut. And I have my white piece against my moose piece to check for proportions. I think I would have made mine a bit bigger. Go with what looks right to you. It always turns out. 

Next, take 4 pieces of your white flannel. Line up. Pin, and we're going to diagonally sew this in prep to cut. 

Start in one corner and sew across the whole piece. Take another set of 4 white pieces and do the same thing. So you'll have two sewn white pieces (4 flannel layers each) and 2 single pieces. 

At this point in the night, it was late. 1230am... I had taken my sewing machine apart, put back together, and again. Brought it home, AND maybe from rushing, being tired, this taking longer than it should, I decided when sewing white flannel, it would be a good idea to put the needle through my finger. AH. Yeah, I'm that person. I've always heard the warning, keep your fingers away... but really. No, I'm that person who didn't listen, had the speed turned up way fast, moved to push the back stitch button, and my one hand... wasn't paying attention and needle went into my finger. 

Not really much to do with the tutorial. But I was told to include the drama and literally blood sweat and tears that went into this.  I'll put the pic of the needle thru my finger at the bottom. So be warned, o ye of weak stomachs. BUT I didn't get any blood on my beautiful white flannel. Winning!

So after an ER trip, back at 2am. Waited til the next day and I was right back at it. Just needed to replace the needle. 

Thank you for making it through that.

Back to the stocking.

Take your scissors again and snip through all the sewn lines, PLEASE don't cut your bottom layer again. Please ! Especially where these are all white, pay attention. 

Cut, cut, cut!

Now take one of your single pieces, and place it over the front (right side) of the frayed white pieces.  You're going to sew along the top close to the edge. 

Either long side is the top... Pick your favorite. 

You can see the seam. That white piece will be folded behind.

The top plain piece is the lining that will be inside. 

Repeat with the other white layered piece and single piece. So you'll have two pieces.

Let's starting piecing ! 

Take one of your cut layered white pieces, with the single white piece folded over (as seen above) and line up the raw edge with the top edge of one of your stocking body pieces. I did the single back piece first. Make sure your cut edge front (right side) is facing the pattern front (right side) of your fabric. 

You can see the pattern side is up, and the cut side is facing that. Pin together. Does this make sense? Bear with me people !

Sew together along the raw edge, piecing together the pattern piece the two pieces of the white layered piece. 

When you open it, it looks like this. 

Do this same thing again with your layered front piece. Sewing the white layered piece to the patterned layered piece. Hopefully you did the other one first so you're really good at this now, cause this is the front, that everyone will see. No pressure !

Now it's time to line up our big pieces and make a stocking !

Right sides facing each other, just lay your big pieces together. Make sure to line up edges ! 

Especially the seam where the white and patterns meet. This is my pet peeve that I wish I'd pay more attention to in making my other one.

Pin pin pin ! This is pretty thick. Lots of layers of flannel. So be careful. I pin because stuff slides. And I like it to line up. 

Just sew along the edge from one side of the top white down the body, around the foot, and back up the white edge. DON'T SEW ACROSS THE TOP OF THE WHITE AREA! I know this seems pretty "duh" but just in case. You want your stocking to be open, so you can stuff it with all kinds of goodies.

From here you would leave it inside out and just go ahead and wash it, which is where the fraying magic happens. But I like to turn it inside out and admire my work. It's so fun looking even just chopped up.  But if you do admire it, just remember to turn it back inside out before you toss it in the wash. 

And I always forget this step. It's easier to add this in when you're sewing the seam around the whole edge. But I never remember. Grab a shoe lace, I used an old hoodie string.  Something sturdy to hang your stocking by. 

With the stocking inside out, line up the string on the outer edge of the white, near the top, and sew. 

Flip it over and repeat with the other side and other end of the string. 

So when the stocking is turned right side out you won't see the seam and all that.  I don't mind forgetting this stuff since it usually looks just fine like this. 

With your stocking inside out, toss it in the washer and dryer. Beware... my poor little boys stocking turned pink. Duh. Red flannel. But I promise I used this same flannel for my husbands a few years ago and don't remember his turning pink. And I don't remember if I pre washed. But someone also told me about using the color catcher sheet thing next time. It saves the time of pouring my homemade detergent full of oxy clean and baking soda on my white part of the stocking over and over and rubbing and wringing it out. Now it's barely noticeable :] Hopefully he won't mind the pinkish stocking when he's 16. 

And here it is in all it's washed, frayed glory. So much color and frayed goodness. So cute !

This is the back. And what I said looks pretty cute when it's just frayed at the top and keep the plain pattern on the bottom. With the frayed front you can't really see the adorable pattern and cute moose faces. Pick what you want ! I like them both !

All our stockings, hung by the chimney with care. 

 His turned out so much bigger than ours, must bigger than I intended. 

Oh, the middle one (mine) I used a paint stencil and hand stitched letters with embroidery floss and sewed those onto colored little blocks and then onto the stocking. I'm working on it for my husbands and little boys. But that takes time. Lots of time. 

Hope this makes sense! Hope you enjoyed it. If you decide to make some for your family let me know ! I'd love to see others stockings ! And if you have any tips on how to make this clearer, or any questions on stuff that wasn't clear, just comment ! 

Thanks for stopping by !

Below: Be warned !

Because I was asked, I will include the one picture I got of the needle through my finger. It's not gruesome. But some people might not have a strong stomach. I don't know. 

So the needle. Thru my finger. Right thru the top of my nail. Nice. 

Just got it pulled out by the ER doc. No numbing. That takes too long. But boy did it hurt worse after he pulled it out.  Only souvenir was the tetanus shot I got. Woo !

Be careful. Don't stab your finger. It doesn't make for a fun stocking making experience.